Black and Smelly Waters: how citizen-generated transparency is addressing gaps in China’s environmental management

ABSTRACT

Information communication technologies (ICTs) generate new forums for transparency via governance-by-disclosure initiatives designed to improve environmental management and policy. Data generated by these programs are a means to empower citizens, narrowing the accountability gap between governments and people and enhancing public service. There is little empirical evidence, however, that supports the theory that citizen-generated data can be used to improve the accountability of local government officials. Citizen-led transparency efforts are emerging in China, as the country undergoes an information revolution that has brought ICTs to near ubiquity. We evaluate the transformative potential of a new ICT initiative, the ‘Black and Smelly Waters’ program, which China’s government launched to help enforce local government water remediation efforts. Many examples of citizen-generated transparency are grassroots initiatives, yet the Black and Smelly Waters program is distinct in its top-down structure. An empirical evaluation of preliminary data illuminates Black and Smelly Waters’s early successes and challenges as a means to generate transparency and accountability. We discuss these findings and propose a broad application of this new type of disclosure to reshape environmental management in China.

KEYWORDS:

• China environmental policy
• transparency
• information communication technologies (ICTs)

Acknowledgements

We thank Sunan Shen, at the Institute for Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE), for addressing several questions related to IPE’s involvement in the Black and Smelly Waters program, as well as Cameron Yick of Yale College and Ross Rauber, Algol Li and Yaolin Zhang of Yale-NUS College for their invaluable research assistance on this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Angel Hsu is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Yale-NUS College.

Amy Weinfurter is a Research Associate at the Data-Driven EnviroLab at Yale-NUS College.

Jeffrey Tong and Yihao Xie are Research Assistants at the Data-Driven EnviroLab at Yale-NUS College.

ORCID

Angel Hsu http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4913-9479

Notes

1 Available at: http://gz.hcstzz.com.

2 Mild black and smelly waters have a transparency of less than 25 cm; dissolved oxygen levels of less than 2 mg/liter; an oxidation/ reduction potential of −200 to 50 mV; and an ammonia index not higher than 8 mg / liter. Severe black and smelly waters have a transparency of less than 10 cm; dissolved oxygen levels of less than 0.2 mg / liter; an oxidation/reduction potential below −200 mV; and an ammonia nitrogen index higher than 15 mg / liter.